Baked hake with green sauce and fennel salad

Pan-fried hake with a crunchy topping, served with a zingy green sauce. A perfect supper for friends!

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Ingredients

165g/6oz unsalted butter

265g/9oz panko or sourdough breadcrumbs

2 tsp sea salt

glug of olive oil

4 x 150g/5½oz–200g/7oz hake fillet, skin-on, pin-boned

For the green sauce

1 bunch flatleaf parsley

½ bunch fresh tarragon

4–6 anchovy fillets

1 tbsp small capers

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

4–6 tbsp olive oil

For the apple and fennel salad

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 orange, finely grated zest and juice

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp olive oil

2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced on a mandolin

2 green apples, cored, sliced and cut into matchsticks

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Melt the butter in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium–high heat until it starts to turn brown. Add the breadcrumbs and salt and cook until golden brown. Tip the mixture onto a plate and leave to cool. Wipe out the pan.

Heat the oil in the frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add the hake and cook for 2–3 minutes. Turn the fish over and top with the breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to the oven and bake for 4 minutes, or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, for the green sauce, blend together the parsley, tarragon, anchovies, capers and garlic in a food processor. Add the mustard, lemon zest and vinegar, then with the engine running pour in the oil until you have a smooth sauce.

For the salad, make a vinaigrette by mixing together the garlic, orange zest and juice, vinegar, mustard and oil in a small bowl. Put the fennel, apple and dill in large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette.